The Methodology, Data Management and Analysis Core (MDMAC) will provide technical support and training of investigators developing or performing intervention and other geriatric research projects examining the aging phenotype and outcomes research. It will also develop new instruments, methodologies, and data archives to enable future studies. Thus the MDMAC will both address techniques for appropriate design and execution of current experiments and build the foundation for future research studies. Building on our experience with the UM Pepper Center, the MDMAC will address the needs of OAIC investigators, and especially junior investigators, for assistance in the design of intervention experiments, and maintenance, analysis, and interpretation of their data. We propose under this Core Development Project to create and maintain over a two year period a unique data set detailing long-term care in the State of Michigan, as part of the OAIC Methodology, Data Management and Analysis Core (MDMAC). The Michigan Master Long-Term Care Data Archive (MMDA), to be developed in a phased plan over several years, will be available to the UM research community and particularly to junior researchers in aging. It will link multiple disparate but critical data sources describing long-term care (LTC), including longitudinal descriptions of individuals in institutional and community-based care programs, with program eligibility, vital statistics, community characteristics, cost information, census information, etc. The proposed MMDA will expand a successful four year partnership between the State of Michigan and the UM Institute of Gerontology (IoG) which has demonstrated the value of the data sets proposed as the core of the new archive. Thus, the funding of a core capability, including both data and expertise, has the potential to encourage and improve research into clinical- and policy-relevant research in the delivery of effective and efficient long-term care. As such, it can create a visible focal point within UM for researchers involved in study of Michigan's publicly-funded LTC services and a model of how other states can develop such archives and these data can be used nationally and internationally.